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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29276568">Too Far</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkChocolateLord/pseuds/TheDarkChocolateLord'>TheDarkChocolateLord</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Spoilers for Book 8.5: Unlocked, inflicting, it's closer to fluff than my other angst but that's not saying much</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:07:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,400</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29276568</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkChocolateLord/pseuds/TheDarkChocolateLord</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>UNLOCKED SPOILERS<br/>Sophie has finally retrieved Kenric's cache, but she's less than thrilled about opening it with her biological mother.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sophie Foster &amp; Councillor Oralie (Keeper of the Lost Cities)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Too Far</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>"Where did you find Kenric's cache?" Oralie asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie was tempted to ignore the question—they needed to get Kenric's cache </span>
  <em>
    <span>open</span>
  </em>
  <span>; where she found it had nothing to do with that. It wasn't like she wanted to share any more information than necessary with her biological mother, anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, she didn't want to slow this down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I was raiding a Neverseen storehouse with Glimmer and Tam and our bodyguards. We found Kenric's cache there, and we recovered some scrolls and stuff, and then...I burned the storehouse down."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>?" Oralie gasped. "Was anyone hurt?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm glad that you're safe, and that you got the caches back—along with the other items. But burning it down seems….risky, if not irresponsible."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had to be at least the tenth person to tell Sophie that, and the irony of the statement made Sophie's anger hit boiling point, made her forget that Kenric had died by fire, forget that Oralie didn't know about the constant lectures Sophie had already had to endure. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She exploded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You want to talk about irresponsible? What about when Prentice was exiled? What about the ability restrictor? What about banishing Tam and Linh? What about letting the Black Swan experiment on my genetics? What about abandoning your daughter in the Forbidden Cities with a Black Swan member you barely know? But yeah, call me irresponsible for burning down a storehouse </span>
  <em>
    <span>run by our enemies</span>
  </em>
  <span>, in case you haven't noticed—you probably haven't, you're probably too busy focusing on the wrong things as usual, just like any other Councillor."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'm sorry—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That's what you always say! You always say you're sorry, but you never do anything to change!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Sophie—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was </span>
  <em>
    <span>done. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Done with denials and explanations and refusals, done with false apologies, done with being lied to. Done with being used and exploited by every single person in her life, done with everyone she thought she could trust being part of one of the groups that manipulated her, from the Council to the Neverseen to the Black Swan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It's not like you care about me, it's not like you care about </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone </span>
  </em>
  <span>or anything but keeping your position on the Council! Like it's done us any good—like you've helped make the world a better place at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span>!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was so angry she could barely </span>
  <em>
    <span>see. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Angry at the Neverseen for putting her in constant danger, angry at the elven world for being so messed-up and at the Council for failing to fix it, angry at the Black Swan for creating her as if one kid could solve every single problem in existence, angry at </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oralie </span>
  </em>
  <span>for donating DNA, for not doing enough as a Councillor, for </span>
  <em>
    <span>failing.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Mr. Forkle is </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead</span>
  </em>
  <span>! So is Calla! And Kenric! And it's not like you cared about any of them—it's not like you did anything at all—and maybe it should have been you!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Red light glimmered at the edge of her vision, and she didn't know where it was coming from, didn't know why it was there, didn't know why her emotions were so intense and strong—fluid, almost, like water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn't </span>
  <em>
    <span>care.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She just let it flow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She heard someone scream.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The noise shattered Sophie's trance; the red light faded from her vision and the world blinked back into focus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oralie was curled up on the ground, body far too still, eyes shut tight—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie had just </span>
  <em>
    <span>inflicted </span>
  </em>
  <span>on her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie had just inflicted on her, and she could be—she </span>
  <em>
    <span>couldn't </span>
  </em>
  <span>be dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oralie!"</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The silence was suffocating, like Sophie was trapped under a blanket of fog. Directionless, deafened, disoriented. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Oralie had died, and the last thing she had heard was Sophie blaming her for Kenric's death…..</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>"Please—</span>
  <em>
    <span>don't die—</span>
  </em>
  <span>I didn't mean to, I'm sorry!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She grabbed a handful of Panakes petals and shoved them into Oralie's mouth, hoping that the healing flowers would work their magic. There was nobody else around; bodyguards and parents alike had agreed to give Sophie some space for opening the cache. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If she told Elwin or Livvy, or even her mom and dad, the chance of them finding out about the inflicting or that Oralie was Sophie's biological mother was far too high. But if she'd done Oralie serious damage—</span>
  <em>
    <span>please, don't let it be serious damage, please let her be okay—</span>
  </em>
  <span>secrets and rules didn't matter anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What if she </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>done Oralie serious damage? What if she had </span>
  <em>
    <span>broken Oralie's mind </span>
  </em>
  <span>with what she said—or with what she did?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Please let her be okay.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span> "Sophie?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oralie's voice was raspy and weak, yet Sophie had never been so glad to hear it in her life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you okay?" Sophie gasped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What </span>
  <em>
    <span>happened</span>
  </em>
  <span>?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"What do you remember?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"How long was I out for?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Are we going to keep asking each other questions until one of us gives in and answers?" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Possibly?" Oralie tried to sit up, then winced and collapsed back onto the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Here." Sophie shoved a handful of Panakes blossoms at Oralie. "They'll help. I'm </span>
  <em>
    <span>so </span>
  </em>
  <span>sorry—I inflicted on you. I didn't mean to, I just lost control. I went way too far and I'm really sorry!" </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I forgive you."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The words were a rushing breeze of relief, yet they seemed too easy. As if forgiveness was easy. As if Sophie didn't hoard her forgiveness because it was worse than the opposite, forgiving too easily only to be hit with a hurricane of betrayal later on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Are you going to tell anyone?" Sophie whispered. Fear raced through her veins; if word got out that she had inflicted on a Councillor….</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Of course not," Oralie assured her. "I'm sorry, too."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was the third time Oralie had apologized to her (or fourth, Sophie had lost count) but she felt like this one was worth listening to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're right. I donated DNA to help the Black Swan, because I believed in their cause, but looking back on it, it was irresponsible and reckless. The same goes for many of the choices I've made as a Councillor. And I'm sorry."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie didn't know what to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn't feel like giving in, but she couldn't deny that some of her anger towards Oralie was misdirected. She wasn't </span>
  <em>
    <span>just </span>
  </em>
  <span>angry at her biological mother; she was angry at the Neverseen and the Black Swan and the Council—and her inflicting was a sign that this had gone </span>
  <em>
    <span>way </span>
  </em>
  <span>too far.</span>
</p><p><span>"I'm not going to pretend that everything is fine between us, because I'm still mad at you. But I shouldn't have said most</span> <span>of what I said, especially the stuff about how you should have died, and I'm sorry. And….are you okay?"</span></p><p>
  <span>Oralie managed to sit up. "Quite honestly? No, but that's because I'm a Councillor with anxiety whose main coping mechanism is committing treason."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie almost wanted to laugh. "Have you tried getting a stuffed animal instead?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I have one. It's actually a Council tradition that Emery started: giving the new Councillor a stuffed animal during the introductory sleepover."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"</span>
  <em>
    <span>Really</span>
  </em>
  <span>?" Sophie gasped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"We're just elves."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"You're </span>
  <em>
    <span>Councillors.</span>
  </em>
  <span>"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"That doesn't mean that we don't have stuffed animals, or sleepovers, or friends." Oralie's gaze turned distant, like she was remembering something—some</span>
  <em>
    <span>one</span>
  </em>
  <span>—and Sophie wasn't sure what to make of it. Before she could ask, though, Oralie's expression shifted. "Never mind. I'm sidetracking us. Should we get started on Kenric's cache?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"If you're ready." Sophie looked Oralie in the eye. "If you're still in pain, we could reschedule—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"I'll be fine. It's been a week since you found it, and this information could be crucial."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oralie was tactful enough to </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>mention that the reason it had been a week was because Sophie had spent most of that week plotting how to find Keefe, and helping Team Valiant and Linh and Marella plan a meeting with Fintan, and reviewing the scrolls the Black Swan had found, and even getting ready for Foxfire and taking care of Luna and Wynn—in short, doing everything she could to avoid her biological mother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie was done with that now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her relationship with Oralie would never be the same. But they </span>
  <em>
    <span>did </span>
  </em>
  <span>need to get Kenric's cache open—they needed to trust each other, whether she liked it or not—and this was the right time to start. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sophie took the tiny orb out of her pocket. "Okay."</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
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